{"id":1138,"date":"2011-06-29T14:28:52","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T14:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voteforjoe.com\/wheresjoe\/?p=611"},"modified":"2011-06-29T14:28:52","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T14:28:52","slug":"a-rather-unique-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=1138","title":{"rendered":"a rather unique artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

During part of our Florida Panhandle Tour<\/strong> last month, we met Beth and Patrick Stanley in Defuniak Springs, Florida. \u00a0 This is \u00a0a mom and her 31-year-old son. \u00a0 Patrick has Down Syndrome and still lives at home. \u00a0 Beth is a nurse and a former \u00a0board member of the National Down \u00a0Syndrome Congress<\/a>. She has been a strong lobbyist \u00a0for making mainstream education as user-friendly for Down Syndrome youth as possible. \u00a0 This is multi-pronged. \u00a0 That is, whether advocating for teachers to be more inclusive curriculum-wise for these students. \u00a0 \u00a0Or \u00a0pushing for teachers to better facilitating \u00a0peer support for these students. \u00a0 Beth has also been quite vocal about equity around state financial help for Down Syndrome kids… \u00a0 When pointing to success stories of Down Syndrome people, Patrick’s is a classic case. \u00a0 As with many Down Syndrome youth, Patrick had a variety of physical complications (extensive asthma, all kinds of orthopedic problems…) growing up. \u00a0 After one surgery, they had to put Patrick in a full body cast. \u00a0 In trying to find things to occupy Patrick during this time, Beth got him some sketch paper and drawing paper. \u00a0 He started to doodle. \u00a0 But quickly, the doodles turned into drawings, turned into good<\/em> \u00a0 drawings. \u00a0 Patrick, they discovered, was an artist. \u00a0 As time went on, Patrick showed in contests, had his art displayed in various places around the area, and has recently come out with a line of greeting cards with his drawings. \u00a0Some of the proceeds from these cards goes to a public awareness video project about Down Syndrome titled: Pursuit of Happiness… Quality of Life<\/em>. \u00a0The rest of the proceeds go to the National Down syndrome Congress in Atlanta, Georgia. \u00a0 Note:<\/strong> \u00a0 Our family spent the last week doing more work (weeding, putting up hay, working with the animals…) around a farm in western Ohio. \u00a0 The kids really take to this kind of life. \u00a0 During a tour several years ago, I told Country Today<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0 newspaper in Wisconsin that one of our biggest laments is the tremendous decline \u00a0of the small family farm, which used to be the backbone of our country. \u00a0 Note 2:<\/strong> \u00a0 *We are trying to raise donations for the next phase of the campaign. \u00a0 If you can help, please send your check to: \u00a0 Schriner Presidential Election Committee, 14304 Mangen Rd., Yorkshire, Ohio \u00a0 45388-9715. \u00a0 Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During part of our Florida Panhandle Tour last month, we met Beth and Patrick Stanley in Defuniak Springs, Florida. \u00a0 This is \u00a0a mom and her 31-year-old son. \u00a0 Patrick has Down Syndrome and still lives at home. \u00a0 Beth …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}